YouTube is one of the undisputed cornerstones of the internet. It offers a vast repository of videos covering all manner of different subjects. Which is why billions of people have visited it since it was launched in 2005. There’s just one problem with YouTube… those damn adverts.

YouTube ads come in all different shapes and sizes, but the ones most people will be familiar with are the pre-rolls. These are the ones which play before a video, forcing viewers to sit through them. However, YouTube has now committed to abandoning the worst kind of pre-roll ad.

30 Seconds Is Just Too Long

As originally reported by Campaign, YouTube is killing its unskippable 30-second pre-roll ads. These are the annoying ads which you’re not even given the option to skip after five seconds. And 30 seconds is a surprisingly long time to wait to watch a short YouTube video.

Google issued a statement saying, “We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers”.

Unfortunately, YouTube isn’t killing unskippable 30-second ads until 2018, so you’ll still have to sit through them for at least another 12 months. Even then this is only one type of ad, albeit the most frustrating type. So you’ll still see six-second bumpers at the very least.

Ads Doing More Harm Than Good

This is a welcome move by YouTube. No one likes ads, but a lot of us put up with them to ensure content creators get paid. So the least YouTube can do is listen to feedback from users and advertisers alike, and abandon ad formats which are doing more harm than good.

How many YouTube videos do you think you watch on an average day? How do you feel about the ads? Which type of YouTube ad do you hate the most? Are you pleased to see YouTube killing the unskippable 30-second ads? Please let us know in the comments below!

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Anonymous pizza

February 17, 2017 at 10:54 pm

I wouldn't mind 30 second ads if they were stuff I am interested in but they are always the same annoying ad over and over again because the thing being advertised knows I don't like it so makes sure to be unskipable.

The sad thing is that YouTube could probably bring more revenue if they would work on making "pay for view" videos more available and searchable. For example, there are TV shows on YouTube where you can buy single episodes or the whole season, but it's not always possible to find them without wading through a bunch of other crap. Or you have videos that have been taken down because they supposedly violate a copyright, but why not track down the copyright holder and see if they would like to offer their product for a fee? Or why not offer a reward to people who DO watch the ads, and give them a discount on for-pay products such as TV or movie rentals?

Like everybody else that doesn't have a vested interest in the 30 second ad, I do not like the 30 second ad and refuse to watch them out of general principle. Fortunately they are pretty easy to navigate around. As far as I can tell, there is no strategic placement to the 30 second ad. Its as if Google randomly throws out the 30 second ad 10% of the time. So if a video has a 30 second ad, I simply watch another video and come back to original video later. Most of the time, the original video will load without the 30 second ad.

Dave Parrack is a journalist from the UK. Growing up at a time when the internet was blossoming inspired his fascination with technology. With 10 years experience writing online, he's currently the Tech News writer and Entertainment editor at MakeUseOf. You can follow him at About.me.